No jail for driver over hit and run

A 47-year-old man with a sig­nif­i­cant traf­fic his­tory will not serve jail time af­ter he struck Scott ‘Moses’ Bradley and left him for dead near Moss­man.

Troy An­thony Salam ap­peared in Moss­man Mag­is­trates Court yes­ter­day and re­ceived a wholly sus­pended three-month im­pris­on­ment term for 18 months for driv­ing without due care and at­ten­tion. He also re­ceived a wholly sus­pended six-month im­pris­on­ment term for 18 months for fail­ing to re­main at a road in­ci­dent, but he won’t have to spend any time in jail.

Salam also had his li­cence dis­qual­i­fied for 12 months.

Mag­is­trate Raimund Heg­gie said the de­fen­dant had a poor dis­re­gard to road rules and safety of road users. Pros­e­cu­tor Se­nior Con­sta­ble Matthew Mitchell said Salam had a poor traf­fic his­tory.

“He was con­victed of dan­ger­ous driv­ing caus­ing griev­ous bod­ily harm when he was 24-years-old and re­ceived 240 hours of com­mu­nity ser­vice,” he said. “His his­tory in­cludes speed­ing, driv­ing un­reg­is­tered, un­li­censed and driv­ing un­der the in­flu­ence. He should have seen Mr Bradley on the road­way to avoid the col­li­sion like the per­son who found him. He showed a cal­lus dis­re­gard for Mr Bradley’s need of as­sis­tance.”

Bradley was walk­ing home from his 24th birth­day in Moss­man on Septem­ber 3, 2016, when he was struck by Salam’s car on Junc­tion St. Bradley’s DNA was lo­cated on the ve­hi­cle. It was proved that Salam did not stop and Mr Bradley’s body was found by a mo­torist some time later.

Sen Con­sta­ble Mitchell said Bradley suf­fered sig­nif­i­cant trauma to the head and torso.

De­fence lawyer Peter Haarsma said his client was ex­tremely re­morse­ful. Mrr Haarsma said the de­fen­dant isn’t al­leged to have caused Bradley’s death.